


Calm

by LeighJ



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beth Greene Lives, Beth Lives, F/M, Happy, Happy Ending, Implied Daryl Dixon/Beth Greene, Love, Love Confessions, Sad with a Happy Ending, Summer of Bethyl, Summer of Bethyl 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 04:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15478131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeighJ/pseuds/LeighJ
Summary: Calm.How can she be calm when her hands are shaking with nerves? How can she be calm when she’s about to see Daryl again? To tell him she’s alive. Alive and here. Bloody and bruised but here, with him. Who could ever be calm in the face of that?





	Calm

**Author's Note:**

> For summer of Bethyl week "Calm."
> 
> Thank you as always to my soul sister wallflow3r.

_Calm_.

How can she be calm when her hands are shaking with nerves? How can she be calm when she’s about to see Daryl again? To tell him she’s alive. Alive and here. Bloody and bruised but _here_ , with him. Who could ever be calm in the face of that?

“Quit bein' sketchy an’ tell me wha's goin’ on,” his voice growls on the other side of the door.

Beth’s heart pounds as she presses her palm to the wood and imagines him right there. She’s close enough that she can hear Maggie saying, “ain’t got the words, Daryl. Just go inside.”

The doorknob turns and she backs away quickly, her heart pounding in her throat. He doesn’t get a chance to see her before he’s whirling to face the door, Maggie having shut it behind him. He’s in the middle of a scowl when he turns back around and freezes. So hard and fast do his muscles lock that she’s sure he’s going to break into a million pieces.

All this time imagining and now she’s lost for words. What do you say when you come back from the dead? And she can feel his insistent eyes on the scars on her face, in the star crater where he watched a bullet tear through and back out.

“ _Daryl_ ,” is all she manages in the end.

The strings cut and he falls, down to his knees with a face like ecstasy, like he’s finally got a hit of whatever drug he’s been chasing.

He looks reborn.

“Beth,” he chokes. “Jesus, _Beth_.”

She's sobbing as she hits her knees and faces him, her arms wrapping around him desperately as she cries. “I’m here. I’m back. I _made_ it.”

There’s so many questions in his eyes but he just scoops her up, pulls her in and breathes in the scent of her, heavy and intoxicated and in his arms, she finally finds her calm.


End file.
